"...our incompetence masks our ability to recognize our incompetence."

Sounds about right.

To access pts. 2 & 3 of this 5-part series by Errol Morris -- here, I believe
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/anosognosics-dilemma/

our incompetence masks our ability to recognize our incompetence

This is actually the good news.

Well, wadda ya know? I can hardly wait for the last two parts. Meanwhile, here's a piece from the end of Pt.2 and the end of Pt.3:

In the next part, we will further examine the legacy of Joseph Babinski and the tragic case of an American president with anosognosia.

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Perhaps even more troublingly, the reaction to Wilson’s anosognosia on the part of his close associates raises the possibility of an even more problematic impairment — a social anosognosia. Can a group of people, perhaps even society at large, devolve into a state of destructive cluelessness?

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Wilson then said, “If I were not a Christian, I think I should go mad, but my faith in God holds me to the belief that He is in some way working out his plan through human perversity and mistakes.”[52]

Amen.

Still curious about the nature of self-deception, denial and neglect, I called V.S. Ramachandran, a legendary neuroscientist at the University of California – San Diego and an expert on anosognosia. Our discussion of his experiences in treating patients with anosognosia is the subject of the next installment.